Paying the banks back at their own game

[RogerS]

I recently received a letter from RBS telling me that due to an error by Santander my account had been incorrectly credited by £500. A mandate was enclosed for me to sign to authorise them to withdraw the £500 from my account.

Fair enough, it's not my money after all. But the letter then went on to say in ever increasingly strident and pushy terms that if I did not sign said mandate then my offspring would be put into slavery, all my tools would go rusty and woodworm would infest my timber. A bit OTT, I thought.

So I signed the mandate but amended the amount to £490 and explained that I'd deducted a £10 handling charge.

And today they have taken their £490.

 

[Mike.C]

Nice one

Cheers

Mike

 

[Richard T]

Nicely done. =D>

(Ten) Quid pro quo.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

that's a classic....excellent work

 

[houtslager]

nice one, good to see the banks take their own medicine

K

 

[Peter Sefton]

Nice move Roger

Cheers Peter

 

[riclepp]

fantastic =D> =D> =D>

 

[MrA]

If this ever happens to you again check their admin' charges and charge the same rate, usually about £30. They can't do thing about it either, but its good to see someone give them a slap.

 

[tekno.mage]

Nice one Roger - play them at their own game Although I think your handling charge is rather low compared to what the banks charge!

 

[Racers]

I would have charged them £600 ;-)

Pete

 

[mpooley]

Very good mate but You are way too cheap!
absolute minimum I would charge is £25
when British gas were mucking me about I told them I was going to charge £25 for every letter of theirs I had to read and £30 for my reply.
They were on the phone next day all apologies and it was sorted straight away

 

[SteveB43]

...did something similar recently, it was a credit card company that charged me a late fee, even though payment had been sent but delayed by my bank, rang them up, explained the situation, pointed out I always settle in full every month (it's low value stuff so no thinking £££ showoff...) and could they please retract the handling fee and said my bank are a nightmare to deal with issues like this,
or sadly I'll take my business elsewhere!

...they did indeed retract!

 

[rafezetter]

I've never been charged any fee I didn't get back, partly because I'm careful and mainly because I don't think being overdrawn for 4 hours warrants a £30 overdraft fee. A stern letter is usually enough.

I wouldn't have signed the mandate, not because I'm a greedy feck (and eyeballing a nice axminster planer thicknesser) but because while it wasn't your money, it wasn't your mistake either... let me explain...

2 years ago the builder guy I live with had 50k - yes £50,000 drop into his account overnight. Needless to say he was surprised to say the least, he ummed and aahed for 2 weeks before finally bringing it to Natwests attention, who a day or two later traced where it SHOULD have been sent and redirected it. (same name, 1 digit wrong; and the proper recipient didn't offer a reward either, cheapskate.)

I told him the same thing, take the money and sit on it in cash - the ONLY way banks will learn to take a bit more care with OUR FFING MONEY is if when they do screw up - make it sting - make them foot the reimbursement costs, tell them they should consider it a "business experience fee". If you don't charge enough for a job but the final fee is written into the contract - a lot of the time you have to swallow it, and accept you got your figures wrong - lesson learned. Happens in contract law all the time.

The fact is when the proper recipient didn't get it they would have had serious egg on their face and either go begging to my mate for it back (and I'd have told them to take a running jump) or keep quiet and send the £50k where it was supposed to go out of their own coffers.

Because banks have access to our money, they think they can either just take it OR threaten dirty tactics to coerce you. Frankly RogerS I'd have called their bluff and told them to drop it or I'll go public. In the last few years banks are reeling from one scandal after another, you wouldn't have had to fight hard in all honesty.

If it were I losing the £50k, I'd not care you sent it to the wrong person, I'd not care if the person you DID send it to; kept it; all I'd be interested in was getting my money back, and I'd scream until I got it - and incidentally if they did manage to get it off the wrong person I'd insist they give him a "reward fee" for the trouble they caused him or I'd go public.

but that's just me.